When Andy Murray walks on court against the grizzled Spaniard Tommy Robredo on
Friday evening, he will enter uncharted waters. For the first time in his
Wimbledon career, he has outlasted his twin grass-court nemeses: Roger
Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Training team: Andy Murray waits to get on the practice courts at Wimbledon with Kyle Edmund (top) and Ivan LendlPhoto: PA

Now, after what has been the most unpredictable Wimbledon in memory, Murray has the sort of draw for which Tim Henman would have sold a kidney.

The most eminent surviving player in the bottom half is No15 seed Nicolas Almagro. In the view of his more eager supporters, none of these jokers has a hope of keeping Murray from a third successive appearance in an All England Club final (Olympics included).

So is he crackling with excitement at his sudden fortune? That is not his style. And it would be unwise in any case. The outstanding efforts of Steve Darcis and Sergiy Stakhovsky, conquerors of Nadal and Federer respectively, have proved that even journeymen can transform themselves into miracle workers on these fairytale lawns.

“Who’s to say I can’t lose to Robredo in the next round?” Murray asked. “These things happen all the time in sport. I just think because of the consistency of the top players for the last eight, 10 years, people are so shocked. Since I came on the tour, Rafa and Roger have always been in the latter stages of the slams.”

Does Federer’s defeat represent the end of an era? “I have no idea. The levels of consistency and domination, we probably won’t see that again. We’ll have to wait and see but he’s one of the greatest athletes ever, and I would expect him to respond very well to this loss. He definitely will be a danger at the US Open.”

Returning to the immediate future, we face a more urgent question: can Robredo pull off another coup to match the tone of this revolutionary week? He has already notched a few unlikely feats while climbing 450-odd ranking places over the past year. In Paris last month, he equalled his best grand slam performance by reaching the quarter-finals, successfully coming back from a two-set deficit in three successive matches. Not bad for a 31-year-old who was supposed to be washed up.

Robredo’s Tommy is not a diminutive: rather, his father admired The Who, and had a particular passion for their rock opera about a blind pinball champion. Yet there is nothing even vaguely flamboyant about his style. His policy is simply to get every ball back, and his win over Almagro in Paris featured so many long rallies that he must have worked his way through a dozen rackets.

For his practice partner on Wednesday Murray turned to Kyle Edmund, the 18-year-old Yorkshire lad who has all the makings of a future British No1. This was a sensible choice, style-wise, given that Edmund has a similarly metronomic game to Robredo. But it may also have been the beginning of a valuable mentoring relationship.

Murray has offered help or advice to a number of young British prospects in the past. Most recently, he invited junior US Open champion Ollie Golding to train with him in Miami last winter. But Edmund is the one with the chops – as well as the bloody-mindedness – to reach the higher echelons of the tour. At 18 years and five months, he is has just climbed to No385 in the world, becoming the second youngest man in the top 400 behind Australia’s Nick Kyrgios.

Murray may well stick with Edmund as a practice partner for the rest of the fortnight, just as he did with Golding last year. He likes to establish a routine at these major tournaments, and not get too caught up in debates about underperforming rivals or slippery courts.

“I know if I don’t play well against Robredo, I’ll lose,” he said on Thursday evening. “That’s why I’ll be ready for that match and not worry about anything else.”